The country’s public finances showed, in the first quarter of the year, a weak performance, showing falls both on the revenue and spending sides, according to information released by the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP).
Between January and March of this year, budget revenues totaled 1 trillion 742.940 million pesos, which meant a decrease of 5.5% in annual comparison.
This is the steepest drop in public revenue since the first third of 2018, when even with Enrique Peña Nieto as president, a decrease of 19.1 percent was observed.
In addition to presenting a fall, budget revenues were 117,486 million pesos below the program this year. This is, for example, greater than the budget exercised by the Ministry of Public Education in the period, of 87,442 million pesos.
The disaggregated information showed that the drop in public revenue was explained by the annual decreases in both the oil sector and tax collection.
In the case of oil revenues, they left resources of 255.200 million pesos, which represented a drop of 18.3% compared to the same period in 2022.
Likewise, the resources received from oil were 123,816 million pesos below what was projected by the government for the period.
The Treasury explained that the decrease in this item was due to the fall in the price of crude oil and natural gas, as well as the appreciation of the peso against the dollar.
Regarding tax revenues, they left a collection of 1 trillion 152.742 million pesos, an annual fall of 4.2 percent.
Like the oil income, the collection from tax collection was below what was programmed by 41,287 million pesos.
The decrease in tax revenues was due to a general weakening of taxes, except for the Special Tax on Production and Services (IEPS).
The tax that reported the greatest drop was the tax on imports, which left resources of 22,434 million pesos in the first three months of the year, which marked a decrease of 7.7 percent.
In the case of VAT, the decrease was 6.4%, while in ISR the reduction was 4.3 percent.
The general IEPS was the only one that showed growth in the period. In the first three months of the year it left 90,869 million pesos, which meant an annual increase of 12.7%.
Sub-exercise of 190,527 million pesos
On the expenditure side, the Ministry of Finance reported an under-exercise; that is, the resources programmed for the period were not fully spent, in addition to presenting an annual decrease in the quarter.
In total, the government spent 1 trillion 868.155 million pesos, which meant a 3.7% annual drop.
Likewise, there was a sub-exercise of 190,527 million pesos, which mainly affected programmable spending, which is intended to provide goods and services to the population.
From January to March, this expense was 1.28 trillion pesos, which represented a decrease of 10.9 percent.
“Regarding public spending, there was a 10.8% real annual increase in physical investment in social development, driven by increases in the housing and education components of 13.3 and 11.1%, respectively. These increases contributed to the rehabilitation of public and domestic spaces,” said the federal agency.
The non-programmable expense, for its part, was 325,517 million pesos, without counting the financial cost of the debt. This amount was 1.3% more in annual comparison.
